A control system for a vehicular drive unit including an engine; a transmission connected to the output shaft of the engine and having a plurality of gear stages for transmitting the power to wheels; a motor generator connected to the output shaft of the engine for recovering the braking energy of the wheels through the transmission by generating electricity; a battery for storing the braking energy, which is recovered by the motor generator, as an electric power; a running status detector for detecting the running status of the vehicle; and controller for controlling the transmission and the motor generator in accordance with the output signal coming from the running status detector. The control means includes a motor generator controller for causing the motor generator to generate the electricity, when the running status detecting means detects a deceleration state of the vehicle, thereby to recover the braking energy; and a shift controller for shifting the transmission to such a gear stage between the present gear stage and a gear stage having a gear ratio higher than that of the present gear stage as maximizes the recoverable braking energy.